How to Use Spring Cloud Alibaba Sidecar to Integrate Go Services with Spring Boot

Spring Cloud Alibaba Sidecar Introduction

Since version Spring Cloud Alibaba 2.1.1, the spring-cloud-alibaba-sidecar module acts as a proxy service allowing other‑language services to use Spring Cloud Alibaba components. It routes through the gateway, enabling service discovery and indirect calls via Ribbon.

As shown, a Spring Cloud application requests the sidecar, which forwards to modules written in other languages with zero intrusion, without needing to register directly with Nacos or other registries.

Getting Started

Build an Interface Service in Another Language

Create a simple service interface in Go.

Endpoint:

http://127.0.0.1:8089/sidecar

package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    http.HandleFunc("/sidecar", sidecar)
    http.HandleFunc("/health", health)
    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8089", nil))
}

func sidecar(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    _, _ = fmt.Fprintf(w, "hello spring cloud alibaba sidecar")
}

func health(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    actuator := make(map[string]string)
    actuator["status"] = "UP"
    _ = json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(actuator)
}

Build the Sidecar Application

Add the sidecar dependency.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-alibaba-sidecar</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.1.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Configure application.yml .

server:
  port: 8088
spring:
  cloud:
    nacos:
      discovery:
        server-addr: localhost:8848
  application:
    name: go-provider

# Configure heterogeneous service
sidecar:
  ip: localhost
  port: 8089
  health-check-url: http://localhost:8089/health

Build the Nacos Consumer Application

Configure application.yml .

server:
  port: 8087
spring:
  cloud:
    nacos:
      discovery:
        server-addr: localhost:8848
  application:
    name: nacos-consumer

Consumer logic.

@RestController
@EnableDiscoveryClient
@SpringBootApplication
public class NacosConsumerApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(NacosConsumerApplication.class, args);
    }

    @Bean
    @LoadBalanced
    public RestTemplate restTemplate() {
        return new RestTemplate();
    }

    @Autowired
    private RestTemplate restTemplate;

    @GetMapping("/test")
    public String test() {
        return restTemplate.getForObject("http://go-provider/sidecar", String.class);
    }
}

Testing

Call the Spring Cloud consumer application: curl http://localhost:8087/test Output from the Go provider application:

hello spring cloud alibaba sidecar